Elijah Cummings Musters Up Some Outrage Over Wasteful Government Spending

RUSH: The IRS hearings this morning in Washington, I have a sound bite here that I want to play for you.

I have mixed emotions about this. It's Elijah Cummings. He's a Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He's the ranking member. That means the leading Democrat, the minority party in this committee. He's a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He's from Maryland, and he is reacting to the news that the IRS spent $50 million on this series of seminars and trips to learn about customer service and line dances and all this stuff.

While Obama's telling everybody, "Hey, it's a new day. You don't fly your jet, and you don't go to Vegas anymore," the IRS is out there in a $50 million spending spree admitting they've lost the receipts. Have you heard that? They've been asked by the committee to produce the receipts to show all of the expenditures at these seminars, and they don't have them. The IRS is admitting -- I don't know if they lost 'em -- they don't have the receipts. They either can't find them or they didn't keep them.

They don't have the receipts. What happens when we don't have our receipts? Then everything we alleged is disallowed. If you don't have the receipt, it's disallowed, pal. Ted Cruz had it right. You know, this is the best chance we've had. Let's just ditch this bunch and just reform it. Have a simple flat tax, FairTax, whatever. Put what you make on a postcard and send it in. I want to follow up with some in-depth, unique commentary with Elijah Cummings' reaction to the latest discoveries of the abuses of the IRS.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Elijah Cummings this morning, upset over the report the IRS spend $50 million holding 220 employee conferences over three years.

CUMMINGS: I live on a block where most people don't even make $50,000 a year, but yet still we can produce a video that has no redeeming value -- none! -- and spend taxpayers' hard-earned dollars for that. Then there was that line dance. Couldn't see any there, either. And so I say we can do better. But guess what? Mr. Fink, the money that was spent on that, that's my money. That's the lady who got the early bus this morning, that's her money, the one who makes $35,000. Her, the gentleman up the street from me that makes 45 hauling trash, that's their money.

RUSH: Well, shazam. Shazam!

Now, all due props. You can't say it much better than he said it there. But how about all of the other trillions of dollars that this government wastes? Where is the same attitude about all of those wasted dollars? Why now is this attitude only about the IRS excess when it happens to be at the top of the news? How about all the other millions and trillions of dollars wasted that are also taxpayer dollars, that are also the dollars of the guy hauling trash for 45 grand a year up the street from you at your neighborhood?

But, better late than never.

Sit tight, my friends. We've Only Just Begun. Carpenters, 1969.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One thing about Elijah Cummings. I know, I know about the $45,000 trash hauler and the $35,000 maid or whatever in his district. He's telling the IRS guy, "Those are their dollars you're spending, their hard-earned money!" We all know those people aren't paying any income tax. I know that. People at those income levels are not paying any income tax. Nevertheless, I find the fact that Cummings made it a point of expressing such outrage interesting.

The liberals will always tell you what they fear. They always will do that. They know this is serious. See, the IRS is the tax collection agency of liberalism. The IRS is crucial. They cannot act like this isn't any big deal. They've got to do what they can to limit the damage here. Even though it may be big, they've got to try to limit it. But what he said, the real question is: Well, where's that attitude about all the government? Where's that attitude about every dime of government waste, not just to the IRS?

Because I'm gonna tell you: The real IRS scandal is that this goes on every damn day in this government. The EPA hounds and harasses people. The agriculture department harasses people. Fish and game, you name it. The people of this country are harassed by government every day. People of this country are increasingly fearful of their government each and every day. This government wastes money each and every to the tune now that we're $16 trillion in debt and counting.